Supreme Court scraps case on transgender bathroom rights

The Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court’s ruling in favor of a Virginia transgender student after the Trump administration withdrew the federal government’s guidance to public schools about the controversial bathroom policy. The justices were scheduled to hear the case later this month.

Supreme Court could decide transgender case. Or not.

To continue reading up to 10 premium articles, you must register , or sign up and take advantage of this exclusive offer: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017. WASHINGTON – Both the transgender teen who sued to use a boys’ bathroom and the Virginia school board that won’t let him still want the Supreme Court to issue a definitive ruling in their ongoing dispute, even after the Trump administration retreated from an Obama-era policy on bathroom use.

U.S. appeals court upholds Maryland’s ban on assault rifles

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Maryland’s ban on assault rifles, ruling gun owners are not protected under the U.S. Constitution to possess “weapons of war,” court documents showed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided 10-4 that the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a law in response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, by a gunman with an assault rifle, does not violate the right to bear arms within the Second Amendment.

North Carolina Tells Supreme Court It’s Giving Up Fight Over ‘Jim Crow’ Voting Law

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday he was dropping his state’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over a 2013 voting bill that a federal appeals court called the most restrictive in the state ” since the era of Jim Crow .” a North Carolina bill that required residents to show photo ID at the polls, shortened early voting and eliminated same-day registration.

An adult voice amid pandemic childness

In his 72 years, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, who was raised in segregated Richmond, Virginia, acknowledges that he has seen much change, often for the better, including advances in the 1960s. But in his elegant new memoir, “All Falling Faiths: Reflections on the Promise and Failure of the 1960s,” he explains why today’s distemper was incubated in that “burnt and ravaged forest of a decade.”

Federal court of appeals issues punishment for Passover

Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit surprisingly rejected the appeal of Susan Abeles a Washington D.C., Orthodox Jew, who was punished by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority because she took off work for the last two days of Passover 2013, as she had done for the past 26 years that she worked at the agency. Abeles’ closely-watched case evoked amicus briefs by the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs as well as The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and the American Jewish Committee.

‘Fatal Vision’ doctor claims innocence in family’s slaying

A former Army surgeon who has always insisted he was wrongly convicted of slaughtering his pregnant wife and their two young daughters nearly 50 years ago won’t give up, even if his latest appeal fails to clear his name, his lawyer says. Jeffrey MacDonald is “going to keep fighting and will continue to maintain his innocence until the end of his days,” Attorney Hart Miles said after a hearing at the 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals on Thursday.

The Latest: Killer set to be executed appeals to high court

The Latest on the scheduled execution of a man convicted of killing a family of four in Virginia : A Virginia inmate scheduled to be put to death this week for the slayings of two young girls has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution. Ricky Gray filed an emergency appeal with the high court on Tuesday.